WASHINGTON The National Zoo, which agreed to pay $10 million to China for the 10-year loan of two pandas, has its eye on two youngsters living on a reserve in western China, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The pandas would be replacements for a pair donated by China in 1972 as a gift from Beijing to symbolize improved relations between the two nations estranged since the communist revolution.
Ling-Ling died in 1992 and Hsing-Hsing, suffering from terminal kidney disease, was euthanized last year.
The Washington Post said zoo officials were interested in obtaining Mei Xiang, a two-year-old female, and Tian Tian, a male who will become three on Aug. 27, as the new residents of its panda house near the zoo's main entrance.
Mei Xian and Tian Tian live in the Wolong reserve, said the newspaper, which based much of its story on a 182-page application to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to import the the black-and-white, roly-poly animals.
A decision could come as soon as October.
"Few species have a greater public impact or greater public appeal than the giant panda," zoo director Lucy Spelman wrote in a letter accompanying the application.
There are about 125 giant pandas in zoos around the world and an estimated 1,000 in the mountains of China. The San Diego and Atlanta zoos are the only U.S. zoos to host pandas at present.
In its application, the National Zoo said it would carry out a $3 million renovation of its panda quarters including creation of "cool spot" grottos to give relief from hot and humid weather.
The zoo also said it had designed 13 research projects that would involve the new pandas. They would be split between evaluating the reproductive ability of pandas and how to prepare pandas for reintroduction into the wild.
(Reuter)